Alan
Tecchio, possibly best know for his early work in Hades and Watchtower and to
some degree later on for his work in Non-Fiction has joined up with Justin
Jurman (guitars), Clint Arent (bass), and Dave Lescinsky (drums), who might have
crossed your path at some stage in bands like; Seven Witches, Hades and
Painmuseum.
Tecchio's
unique voice is carrying the album, and I must say that this is one of his less
fortune performances. Too much screaming and speaking rather than using his
unique clean high pitched voice. But that's not where my major issues with this
album lie... The music itself is a sadly shallow shell with no real substance or
power, and it has sadly more in common with Non-Fiction, Engine and VoiVod than
Hades without ever reaching the standard any of those bands.
And it's a
real shame because the set-up sounds so promising; "Dethroned" is a futuristic
concept album and the story is based around ideas developed by Ray Kurzweil in
his ground-breaking book “The Singularity Is Near.” Taking forward-thinking
concepts like strong artificial intelligence, exponential technological
development, and nanotechnology, Autumn Hour has woven their own shadowy,
sorrowful tale of a potential future. The dark, brutal and haunting tale is
transcended into the music but it never delivers.
The
songbook for the aftermath after a total devastation fails to impress, sure it's
dark and gloomy, but the music never catches fire and ignites... No, sorry but
this one does nothing for me at all.
